Nakamichi CD Player 3 - needs to heat before it's able to read disc

Do not tackle it yourself - take it to an experienced audio tech.

.... Phil

Why not just leave it on all the time?

You didn't indicate what happens when you load the disk from a cold start. Does the disk spin up? If so, that suggests it might not be sticky lubricant. (Phil, when was the last time you saw a consumer-electronics product with sticky lubricant?)

My gut feeling is that it's an intermittant laser diode.

You might want to read through these postings...

You might also go to JustAnswer. The quality of their response varies, but they do have some knowledgeable people.

Regardless, this could be the sort of problem that eats up huge amounts of expensive diagnosis time, to no effect.

"William Sommerwanker = Criminal TROLL

FOAD you stinking pile of autistic, sub human garbage.

.. Phil

For the google tape, Phil is knowlegable but has problems expressing himself. Someone told him that he is a 'stinking pile of autistic, sub human garbage' and this phrase has stuck in his memory as useful to be fired back as insult.

He is unique. Googling finds no one else on the net has ever uttered "stinking pile of autistic" other than him.

We should start a list of these 'insults', record the date and times and corrolate them against phases of the moon, tides, hormones cycles or something. Could there be a useful discovery?

BTW I feel valued items of audio equipment that the user has an obvious personal relationship shouldn't be mucked about with as possible heartbreak lies that way. The worst is to have some user let loose lubricating it with WD40 or some other left-field third-hand cure, and then have both user and machine spend some time with the applicable medics, both having expensive repair sessions.

How much does/did Phil's treatment cost?

Phil didn't suggest any treatment, other than taking the unit to a qualified service technician. (Just try finding one.) But unless the "warm up" problem is known and well-understood, the technician is likely to spend a lot of expensive service time tracking it down.

build

I would assume the focus voltage is drifting a bit and out of capture range until warmed up. Find the power pot (preset) measure R both ways and mark with pen and adjust lower first one way and try and then the other no more than 5 percent and see if it makes a difference

On Sat, 26 Nov 2011 07:16:08 -0800, "William Sommerwerck" put finger to keyboard and composed:

The OP could try starting the unit upside down. This may shed some light on the nature of the fault. He could also kickstart the disc by spinning it manually.

- Franc Zabkar

I have seen the main power supply filter cap open up on these.

Also shorted spindle motors.

Mark Z.

And I've seen "bad" caps >temporarily< get better after a period of time. Sounds like a good place to start checking. And PS caps are generally easy to replace.

I should have mentioned that the aforementioned filter cap can result in symptoms similar to those reported by the OP.

In the particular one I had, the shrink wrap of the capacitor had this weird bubbly texture. On close examination, the corrosion we often see underneath these things had grown and spread like a cancer under the plastic wrap. Weird.

Mark Z.

Actually, Phil is quite right. I see sticky lubricant all the time on CD player laser rails, swinging-arm idlers on cassette decks, bits of autochange mechanism on phono decks ...

Arfa

Or don't, unless you are thoroughly experienced in carrying out such adjustments ... :-\

Arfa

In my experience fooling around with the adjustments rarely actually fixes a malfunction, they merely mask or compensate for what is actually wrong. For example, increasing the tracking gain might (temporarily) seem to fix a skipping problem, when the actual problem is bad lubrication on the laser mechanical path (rails, etc as Arfa mentioned). Diddling with the adjustment pots is best reserved for after parts replacement or other service, and should be done by a knowledgeable hand, preferably with service literature available.

Mark Z.

On Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:41:17 -0600, "Mark Zacharias" put finger to keyboard and composed:

FWIW, I had the same problem in an old Tevion DVD player (Aldi supermarket brand).

- Franc Zabkar